Gluten Free Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Ever since I made my easy vegan chocolate cake I’ve been keen to try a gluten-free chocolate cake. And I had lovely little rainbows and pixie dust in my head when I attempted it, thinking all I had to do was switch out the all purpose flour for a gluten free option and it would be perfect.

So since I had a ready bag of rice flour I happily went along following my chocolate cake recipe to the T, just switching out the flours, expecting a glorious cake to result.

Ha Ha Ha Ha! What a laugh.

What happened instead is I got my first cake explosion! Well, maybe that’s a bit sensationalist, as it didn’t explode in the oven or anything. Rather what happened was as soon as it was out of the cake tins it started to break apart. But I, pixie dust and rainbows rapidly disappearing, set out to frost it into shape!

I would frost it so well it would certainly hold together. Frosting complete, I put it into the refrigerator to set, thinking once that frosting set there would be no falling apart of this cake.

And that’s when the explosion happened. The cake literally exploded outwards (thank god it was in a cake container, else my fridge would have been a sight) into huge chunks of frosted cake. So wish I had taken a picture so I could show you the carnage!

We still ate it though, it tasted like a brownie cake, and aside from the fact that you had to dish it up with a spoon into bowls and eat it like a brownie pudding, it was still very tasty.

So now I thought I had learned my lesson – so you can’t just use any gluten-free flour as a substitute then! So I went out and bought a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. And my next attempt used this flour as a direct substitute and again followed my previous recipe to a T.

Ag. Dry as dry as dry as the Sahara was the result! Or droog if you want to say it in Afrikaans. This cake was baie (very) droog.

And discovered that yes, gluten-free flours absorb more moisture, so you should increase wet ingredients! And on top of that you should increase ingredients like baking powder or baking soda by 25%.

So I increased the oil, added some apple sauce, switched out the white sugar for brown (more moisture in brown sugar), and added 25% more to the baking soda and bingo, the best, perfectly moist, perfectly delicious gluten-free cake that you would never even know is gluten-free! Yay!

And topped with some vegan ganache frosting, this was a cake that made a lot of people very happy I can tell you!

Another thing I learned in my gluten-free cake baking experience was that you really want to use some parchment paper here. In previous cakes I just greased my cake pans and got on with it, but I totally ruined one of my gluten-free chocolate cakes by doing this. It stuck to the bottom of the pan, and while I can usually loosen it with a knife, with this cake, being more crumbly than a regular cake, it broke up in the process and was utterly destroyed.

Cutting parchment paper into a circle and putting that on the bottom of the greased pan solved that problem perfectly. Cake came right out with no possibility of breaking up while doing so.

So I’m mightily pleased with this gluten-free chocolate cake, this recipe now works extremely well with all the kinks worked out of it!

Gluten-free baking isn’t quite as easy as regular baking (and even regular baking I think we’ll all agree takes a bit of experience), and you have to be open to tweaking things as necessary.

You’ll love how this cake comes out and if you’re eating gluten-free or baking for someone who is, this cake is going to be quite the people-pleaser.

Another little tip I picked up in my research was that gluten-free baking times can vary from standard times. With this cake (since I had to make it quite a few times to get it right!), I found that 30 minutes was adequate most of the time, except on one occasion when the toothpick came out a little wet at 30 minutes, and I put it back in for another 5 minutes after which it was fine.

So – be a little flexible. Actually flexibility in baking is kind of required, since oven temperatures vary anyway!. So check it after 30 minutes and it will likely be done, but if not, put it back in a little longer!

So let us know what you think of this recipe by leaving a comment! Rate it and leave a comment too if you’ve made it. We’d be chuffed if you took a pic and tagged it #lovingitvegan on instagram so we can see your gorgeous cake too. And share this recipe far and wide if you have any gluten-free friends or family who might appreciate a fabulous gluten-free chocolate cake. Thanks!

Divide the batter between the two cake tins and place into the oven to bake for ~30 minutes.

After 30 minutes check if they are ready by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean it’s ready. If not, put it back in for another 5 minutes and then check again.

Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Prepare the chocolate ganache frosting by adding the coconut cream and coconut oil to a pot on the stove and heating to just prior to boiling (it should have just started to simmer).

Remove from stove and pour out the hot liquid over broken up pieces of dark chocolate in a bowl.

Allow to sit for a minute for the chocolate to melt.

Whisk up into smooth chocolate.

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and whisk again with an electric whisk.

Place the chocolate ganache into the refrigerator to firm up for about an hour (This will be when the cake is cooling anyway).

When the frosting is cooled and firm, whisk it up again with an electric whisk until it’s the right consistency to spread onto cake. If it’s too thin, add another 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to reach the right frosting consistency.

Frost onto properly cooled cake.

This cake will keep properly covered in a cake dish for a few days, but of course it’s best when fresh.

About the Author

Hi I'm Alison! I'm a passionate vegan foodie, recipe creator and author of Simple Vegan Dinner Recipes, a digital program created so that you always know the answer to: 'What's For Dinner?' I believe in simple, delicious, accessible and unpretentious vegan food, without unnecessary or hard to find ingredients.

Loving It Vegan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site may contain some of these links to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase through one of those links, Loving It Vegan will receive a small commission from the purchase at no additional cost to you.

It’s just a more intensified (creamier) version of coconut milk. You get it in a can and it is in the same section of the store as the coconut milk. You can also use full fat coconut milk for this if you can’t find coconut cream, but it is usually easy to find.

Gluten-free baking can be quite the puzzle, but with some experimenting it can definitely be figured out and it looks as if you’ve definitely figured this one out! This cake looks AMAZING. I’m glad you were persistent 🙂 I just pinned it so I can refer back to it the next time I need to make a cake.

I made this recipe for cupcakes, no frosting. I took the oil out, because we do not eat oil in our food. I replaced it with 1/2 cup of applesauce. I also added a Tbs of baking powder. They were great! I wish there was a frosting recipe without butter or oil. We love them plain! I will be making these for my sons birthday!

Awesome Amanda – great to hear they came out well and that those substitutions worked out! I have a vegan chocolate frosting recipe that uses only a little vegan butter, but you could try omitting it in favor of extra plant milk – I haven’t tried it like this myself but think it would probably work out fine. http://lovingitvegan.com/how-to-make-vegan-chocolate-frosting/

Hi there this looks awesome! Vegan is not something we care much about in my family so I’m wondering will regular milk and a regular egg work in this recipe? I don’t see why not but I figure i would check 🙂

Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it for my boyfriends brother in law’s birthday and it was gone in minutes. My boyfriends mother was adamant I had to make it tomorrow for their belated thanksgiving dinner. I am going to make it four layers this time because it was a little short the first time and I couldn’t find coconut cream so I used another recipe for vegan heavy cream and it worked great!

I doubled the recipe and used a 9 x 12 pan for a dinner party. The cake came out beautifully with a nice crumb and lovely flavor. I ran short on the brown sugar and used 1 cup of coconut sugar in addition without any problem in sweetness levels. My guests never knew that it was vegan and gluten-free and they scooped up every last crumb. I paired the cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting made with Earth Balance.

Thank you for this awesome recipe. You have proved me so wrong with the thought that my kids would forever be eating dry gluten free vegan cakes and hoping they would not know any better. I have been failing for years at making gluten free vegan cakes until I found this recipe. I have no allergies or intolerances but my 3 kids have extensive allergies and this cake will make birthdays pleasurable again. Does not taste gluten free or vegan at all and all my family who aren’t gluten free or vegan simply loved and could not believe it. I did use the Bob’s red mill gluten free all purpose flour like you recommended but tried the ‘1 to 1’ flour instead which has a blue label. Not sure if this made a difference. It seems to have different ingredients to the regular gluten free flour mix. I’ve never commented on anything online before but I am so over the moon excited that I just had to thank you.

You are so welcome! I am so happy to this worked out so well! I had the same experience, everyone who ate it (most of them neither gluten-free nor vegan) absolutely LOVED this cake! I’m so glad it was the same for you. Thanks so much for commenting!

I made this cake yesterday for my husband’s birthday. He is gluten-free and my daughter is allergic to eggs. Until now I have not found a recipe that could so amazingly satisfy them both. The cake was gone in minutes. My mother, who is careful about what she eats, couldn’t resist taking a second piece. My son who has no allergies, was downing it like there was no tomorrow. I know this is going to become a standard in my kitchen and I am so grateful for this unbelievable recipe.

Hiya! SO happy i came across this recipe, my brother is allergic to eggs, dairy , nuts and gluten! We are a refined sugar free household, can we substitute the brown sugar with raw honey or organic maple syrup? Thanks!

Coconut sugar would likely be fine because it’s also a dry ingredient. It can’t be replaced with something like maple syrup though as that is a wet ingredient and would throw out the balance between wet and dry. But I don’t see any issue with coconut sugar. All the best and let us know how it goes!

Made this for my 4 year old with multiple food allergies. It really is fantastic. You cannot tell a difference between this and the non-gluten free, non-vegan version. We all loved it! Thanks so much!!

No! This is because I am using a gluten-free all purpose flour blend though, if you were making up a flour blend yourself then you may need to add this ingredient depending on the blend. But if you buy a ready-made blend like Bob’s Red Mill or another one of the blends, you don’t need to add anything.

I’m sorry, but I need to back up Heather and ask that you be a little bit more specific. Bob’s Red Mill (which is the brand you said you had used) has two all purpose flour blends (3 if you count organic vs non) and one of them contains xanthan gum and the other doesn’t. The one labeled “All Purpose” does not contain xanthan gum, but their “Gluten Free 1 to 1” does contain xanthan gum. Do you, by any chance, remember which one you used?

Sure it’ll work without, but adding xanthan gum can greatly improve the texture, structure, and moisture levels of any gluten free dough. Adding it can also allow denser baked treats like cake or bread to rise properly during the backing process. Your first few attempts probably crumbled because the first flour you used didn’t have any in it, and you had to add all the extra moisture in the final recipe to make up for not having it.

I do want to try your recipe as is first though. I’ve always preferred denser cupcakes/cakes, so it’ll probably end up being perfect regardless.

No…. my first attempt crumbled because I used rice flour, not a blend. This recipe has since been tested with different blends, including those containing xantham gum. And the extra moisture is a non-negotiable regardless.

My cakes are also quite small – the pics might be deceiving in that respect. But if they really didn’t rise then things that could have caused this would be: if the baking soda isn’t fresh or if the oven was opened while baking or if the batter was overmixed or left too long before baking. If none of these was the cause then I’m not sure what could have happened there.

This recipe is amazing! My daughter made it for Thanksgiving and a few guests requested to take home some. Now, I need to make more for us! By the way, my daughter made it WITHOUT the ganache frosting. We are not really frosting people and it was fabulous without any. Also, she replaced the applesauce with pumpkin, which worked just fine. She used Trader Joe’s gluten-free flour. Thanks so much for all your hard work on this recipe and for sharing it with us!

Hi there! I love the look of this recipe! I want to make it for my boyfriends birthday tomorrow, I’m in the UK and I can’t find that type of flour, can I use Doves Farm GF self raising flour?? Can you give me any easily accessible ready made flour mixes in the uk please? Desperate woman here!! Thanks x

Hi Lia, I don’t know that brand and I don’t know any particular brands to recommend to you, but I have used other blends since making this recipe, all worked out great, the important thing is that it must be a blend (not a single type of flour), and it must say that it is for use in cakes/baking and is a replacement for regular flour. If it says that on the packaging, it’ll likely work great! That being said though, always good to do a test run with it first! All the best! 🙂

This recipe is AMAZING! Cannot believe how delicious these are! These are very moist! Delicious chocolate flavor. I didn’t need them to be vegan, just gluten free. So, i used a regular egg and 2% cows milk. And gluten free flour, of course. The recipe is easy to follow and put together. Best of ALL, these are ingredients I usually have in my home!

I made them into cupcakes – it made about 18 regular sized cupcakes. Baked them for about 23 min until tops sprang back to the touch.

Thank you for crafting such an awesome recipe! This is now my go to chocolate cake recipe!!

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